Stroud District Council (21 014 717)
Category : Planning > Planning applications
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 31 Jan 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a planning application. This is because the complainant has not suffered significant personal injustice as a result of the alleged fault.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X, has complained about how the Council dealt with a planning application. Mrs X says the Council’s decision to refuse planning permission was inconsistent and based on assumptions and inaccurate information. Mrs X says the Council’s actions have affected a business which is part of the local community and costs have been incurred which could have been avoided. Mrs X says the planning decision should be reviewed and compensation provided.
- Mrs X is also unhappy with how the Council dealt with her complaint.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X may disagree with the Council’s decision to refuse planning permission. But the issue does not cause Mrs X any significant personal injustice. She is not the planning applicant and has not suffered any financial losses.
- Mrs X has also complained about the Council’s complaint handling. However, where the Ombudsman has decided not to investigate the substantive issues complained about, we will not usually use public resources to consider more minor issues such as complaint handling.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she has not been caused significant personal injustice because of the alleged fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman